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142-836: In 1955, May moved to Chicago and became a founding member of the Compass Players , an improvisational theater group. She began working alongside Nichols and in 1957, they both quit the group to form their own stage act, Nichols and May . In New York, they performed nightly in clubs in Greenwich Village alongside Joan Rivers and Woody Allen , as well as on the Broadway stage. They also made regular appearances on television and radio broadcasts. They released multiple comedy albums and received four Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Comedy Album for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May in 1962. Their collaboration

284-512: A Big Way (1947). They then began work on an original story about two baseball players in the early 20th century who spend their off-season as vaudevillian song and dance men. This film would eventually become Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). Kelly and Donen hoped to co-direct the film, but Freed hired Busby Berkeley instead, and they only directed Kelly's dance numbers. The film starred Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin . After

426-530: A Girl a Break" dance between Reynolds and Fosse was choreographed backwards and then played in reverse to create the illusion that the two are surrounded by hundreds of balloons that instantly appear at the touch of their fingers. Shooting the film became a bitter experience for Donen due to a major on-set fight over the film's choreography between Fosse and Gower Champion. The film was not well reviewed upon release, but its reputation has grown over time. Donen solidified his solo career and scored another hit with

568-464: A Grammy. After performing their act a number of years in New York's various clubs, and then on Broadway, with most of the shows sold out, Nichols could not believe their success: We were winging it, making it up as we went along. It never even crossed our minds that it had any value beyond the moment. It was great to study and learn and work there. We were stunned when we got to New York... Never for

710-562: A London barber shop and live together in a "bad marriage". The film was shot in Paris for tax purposes and was not a financial success. It received poor reviews upon release, but was re-evaluated by film critic Armond White in 2007. He called the film "a rare Hollywood movie to depict gay experience with wisdom, humor and warmth", and "a lost treasure". After Donen's marriage to Adelle Beatty ended, he moved back to Hollywood in 1970. Producer Robert Evans asked Donen to direct an adaptation of

852-517: A Musical Picture while screenwriters Comden and Green won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical . Like Orson Welles , Donen made his directorial debut at 25. Donen stated that Kelly was "responsible for most of the dance movements. I was behind the camera in the dramatic and musical sequences." Kelly believed that he and Donen "were a good team. I thought we complemented each other very well" he said. After

994-513: A Tony Award for acting. In 2022, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave May an Honorary Academy Award for her "bold, uncompromising approach to filmmaking, as a writer, director, and actress". Elaine Iva Berlin was born on April 21, 1932, in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, the daughter of Jewish parents, theater director and actor Jack Berlin and actress Ida (Aaron) Berlin. As

1136-521: A brother-sister American dancing team performing in England during the royal wedding of Elizabeth and Philip in 1947. Judy Garland was originally cast in the lead role, but was fired for absenteeism due to illness and was ultimately replaced by Powell. In the film, Powell's love affair with a wealthy Englishman ( Peter Lawford ) threatens to ruin the brother-sister act, while Astaire finds his own romance with another dancer ( Sarah Churchill ). The film

1278-472: A child actor in the Yiddish theater, as men hung on her every word. Every guy who knew her was in love with her. You'd have been stupid not to have been. As an integral member of their group, May was open to giving novices a chance, including the hiring of a black actor and generally making the group "more democratic". And by observing her high level of performance creativity, everyone's work was improved. "She

1420-532: A child, May performed with her father in his traveling Yiddish theater company, which he took around the country. Her stage debut on the road was at the age of three, and she eventually played the character of a generic little boy named Benny. Because the troupe toured extensively, May had been in over 50 schools by the time she was ten, having spent as little as a few weeks enrolled at any one time. May said she hated school and would spend her free time at home reading fairy tales and mythology. Her father died when she

1562-722: A choreographer before collaborating with Gene Kelly where Donen worked as a contract director for MGM under producer Arthur Freed . Donen and Kelly directed the films On the Town (1949), Singin' in the Rain , and It's Always Fair Weather (1955). Donen's relationship with Kelly deteriorated during their final collaboration. His other films during this period include Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Funny Face (1957). He then broke his contract with MGM to become an independent film producer in 1957. Donen received acclaim for his later films including

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1704-600: A cult classic. Vincent Canby cited the two-reelers of the 1930s and Depression-era screwball comedies when he called it "a beautifully and gently cockeyed movie that recalls at least two different traditions of American film comedy... The entire project is touched by a fine and knowing madness." May received a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of the shy botanist in the project from which she fought studio exec Robert Evans , unsuccessfully, to have her name removed. May quickly followed her debut film with 1972's The Heartbreak Kid . She limited her role to directing, using

1846-433: A deal was reached that both released Donen from his MGM contract and allowed him to make his next two films at Paramount and Warner Brothers respectively. Astaire plays an aging fashion photographer who discovers the intellectual bohemian Hepburn at a used bookstore in Greenwich Village and turns her into his new model while falling in love with her in Paris. Donen, Avedon and cinematographer Ray June collaborated to give

1988-456: A director's cut in 1980. In 2019, May worked with The Criterion Collection to create the newest director's cut. The film has gained appreciation by many critics and audiences in recent years. In Herbert Ross 's California Suite (1978), written by Neil Simon , she was reunited with A New Leaf co-star Walter Matthau, playing his wife Millie. In addition to writing three of the films she directed, May received an Oscar nomination for updating

2130-462: A distribution deal through Warner Brothers. Donen would self-produce nearly all of his films for the rest of his career, sometimes under the name "Stanley Donen Productions". Donen and Grant inaugurated their company with Indiscreet (1958), based on a play by Norman Krasna and starring Grant and Ingrid Bergman . Because of Bergman's schedule, the film was shot on location in London. Bergman plays

2272-568: A dress-shop manager, and Helen (Cohen), the daughter of a jewelry salesman. His younger sister Carla Donen Davis was born in August 1937. Born to Jewish parents, Donen became an atheist in his youth. Donen described his childhood as lonely and unhappy as one of the few Jews in Columbia, and he was occasionally bullied by antisemitic classmates at school. To help cope with his isolation, Donen spent much of his youth in local movie theaters and

2414-459: A famous and reclusive actress who falls in love with the supposedly married playboy-diplomat Grant. When Bergman discovers that he has been lying about having a wife, she concocts a charade with another man in order to win Grant's full affection. A scene in the film involves Donen's clever circumvention of the strict Production Code . In the scene, Grant is in Paris while Bergman is still in London and

2556-407: A favorite among his own films and called it "a very personal film in that I said a great deal about what I think is important in life." It was remade as Bedazzled (2000) by director Harold Ramis . Staircase (1969) is Donen's adaptation of the autobiographical stage play by Charles Dyer with music by Dudley Moore. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton star as a middle-aged gay couple who run

2698-518: A high school diploma to apply, which she did not have. After finding out that the University of Chicago was one of the few colleges that would accept students without diplomas, she set out with seven dollars and hitchhiked to Chicago. Soon after moving to Chicago in 1950, May began informally taking classes at the university by auditing , sitting in without enrolling. She nevertheless sometimes engaged in discussions with instructors and once started

2840-546: A host of critically acclaimed and popular films. His most important contribution to the art of film was helping to transition movie musicals from the realistic backstage settings of filmed theater to a more cinematic form that integrates film with dance. Eventually film scholars named this concept "cine-dance" (a dance that can only be created in the medium of film), and its origins are in the Donen/Kelly films. Film scholar Casey Charness described "cine-dance" as "a melding of

2982-418: A huge fight after saying that Socrates' apology was a political move. Mike Nichols , who was then an actor in the school's theatrical group, remembers her coming to his philosophy class, making "outrageous" comments, and leaving. They learned about each other from friends, eventually being introduced after one of his stage shows. The director Paul Sills brought May to Nichols and said, "Mike, I want you to meet

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3124-481: A job. I needed someone to count for the cameraman, someone who knew the steps and could explain what I was going to do so the shot was set up correctly." Donen accepted and choreographed three dance sequences with Kelly in Cover Girl (1944). Donen came up with the idea for the "Alter Ego" dance sequence where Kelly's reflection jumps out of a shop window and dances with him. Director Charles Vidor insisted that

3266-531: A letter from his old boss George Abbott inviting him to make a film version of Abbott's stage hit The Pajama Game at Warner Brothers. As part of the deal to secure the Warner-owned Gershwin music he wanted for Funny Face , Donen accepted the offer and he and Abbott co-directed the film version. The Pajama Game (1957) stars Doris Day and John Raitt , with music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross and choreography by Bob Fosse. Raitt plays

3408-511: A level of invention, a depth of reflection, and a tangle of emotions in Ishtar which are reached by few films and few filmmakers." May acted in the film In the Spirit (1990), in which she played a "shopaholic stripped of consumer power"; Robert Pardi has described her portrayal as a "study of fraying equanimity [that] is a classic comic tour de force." She also contributed to the screenplay for

3550-503: A moment did we consider that we would do this for a living. It was just a handy way to make some money until we grew up. His feelings were shared by May, who was also taken aback by their success, especially having some real income after living in near-poverty. She told a Newsweek interviewer, "When we came to New York, we were practically barefoot. And I still can't get used to walking in high heels." The uniqueness of their act made them an immediate success in New York. Their style became

3692-422: A plant supervisor at a nightwear factory who is in constant disputes with the plant's union organizer (Day), until they end up falling in love. Donen described his working relationship with Abbott as relaxed, stating that "[Abbott would] play tennis, come watch on the set for an hour, then watch the rushes, then go home." It was only a modest financial success, but Jean-Luc Godard praised it and declared "Donen

3834-521: A screenplay by Neil Simon , based on a story by Bruce Jay Friedman. The film starred Charles Grodin , Cybill Shepherd , Eddie Albert , and May's own daughter, Jeannie Berlin . It was a major critical success, and holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In 2000, it was listed at No. 91 on AFI 's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list. May followed the two comedies by writing and directing the gangster film Mikey and Nicky , starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes . Budgeted at $ 1.8 million and scheduled for

3976-493: A script) to make a musical using old songs that he and composer Nacio Herb Brown wrote in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Comden and Green decided to write a story inspired by the time period in which the songs were written, and satirized Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s. Comden, Green and Donen interviewed everyone at MGM who was in Hollywood during that period, poking fun at both

4118-403: A sequel to On the Town , Kelly, Dailey and Kidd play three ex-GIs who reunite 10 years after World War II and discover that none of their lives have turned out how they had expected. Kelly approached Donen with the project and at first Donen was reluctant due to his own success. Their friendship deteriorated during production and Donen noted, "the atmosphere from day one was very tense and nobody

4260-400: A six-minute-long, mostly improvised, "mother and son" sketch, which they performed later that night. May helped remove the stereotype of women's roles on stage. Producer David Shepherd notes that she accomplished that partly by not choosing traditional 1950s female roles for her characters, which were often housewives or women working at menial jobs. Instead, she often played the character of

4402-473: A sophisticated woman, such as a doctor, a psychiatrist, or an employer. Shepherd notes that "Elaine broke through the psychological restrictions of playing comedy as a woman." May and Nichols had different attitudes toward their improvisations, however. Where Nichols always needed to know where a sketch was going and what its ultimate point would be, May preferred exploring ideas as the scene progressed. May says that even when they repeated their improvisations, it

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4544-484: A steel-reinforced rotating cylindrical chamber, with the camera attached to the cylinder. Both Astaire and the film's lyricist Alan Jay Lerner claimed that they thought of the idea. The film included music by Lerner and Burton Lane and was released in March 1951. Next, Donen made Love Is Better Than Ever , which was not released until March 1952. The film stars Larry Parks as a streetwise show business agent who

4686-405: A summer 1975 release, the film cost $ 4.3 million and was not released until December 1976. May ended up in a legal battle with Paramount Pictures over post-production costs, at one point hiding reels of the film in her husband's friend's Connecticut garage and later suing the company for $ 8 million for breach of contract. May worked with Julian Schlossberg to get the rights to the film and released

4828-618: A tabloid scandal, the project was abandoned. Later that year Donen directed the stage musical The Red Shoes (based on the Powell and Pressburger film ) at the Gershwin Theatre . He replaced the original director Susan Schulman just six weeks before the show opened. It closed after four days. Donen's last film was the television movie Love Letters , which aired in April 1999. The film starred Steven Weber and Laura Linney and

4970-497: A team, when she wrote the screenplay and he directed The Birdcage . It "was like coming home, like getting a piece of yourself back that you thought you'd lost," he said. He adds that May had been very important to him from the moment he first saw her, adding that for her "improv was innate," and few people have that gift. Director Arthur Penn said of their sudden breakup, "They set the standard and then they had to move on." To New York talk show host Dick Cavett , "They were one of

5112-586: A year later. In 1964, May married her psychoanalyst, David L. Rubinfine; they remained married until his death in 1982. May's longtime companion was director Stanley Donen , from 1999 until his death in 2019. Donen said he proposed marriage "about 172 times". After her marriage to Marvin May, she studied acting. She also held odd jobs during that period, such as a roof salesman, and tried to enroll in college. She learned, however, that colleges in California required

5254-550: Is a remake of the Claude Berri film Un moment d'égarement (1977) and was written by Gelbart and Charlie Peters. It stars Michael Caine , Joseph Bologna , Michelle Johnson , Valerie Harper and Demi Moore and was shot on location in Rio de Janeiro. Caine and Bologna play wealthy executives on vacation with their families in Rio, where Caine has an affair with Bologna's teenage daughter (Johnson). It received poor reviews, but

5396-606: Is an expert in ancient hieroglyphics. He is approached by a Middle Eastern prime minister to investigate an organization that is attempting to assassinate him and uses hieroglyphic codes to communicate. The investigation leads Peck to one mystery after another, often involving the prime minister's mysterious mistress (Loren). The film was Donen's second consecutive hit. Donen made Two for the Road (1967), starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney with Eleanor Bron , William Daniels , and Jacqueline Bisset in supporting roles. The film

5538-609: Is compelled to marry an innocent young dance teacher ( Elizabeth Taylor ). Donen and Kelly appear in cameo roles. The reason for the film's delayed release (by over a year) was Parks's appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his eventual admission of his former membership in the Communist Party , and for naming other participants. The film was unsuccessful at the box-office. Donen teamed again with Kelly — who

5680-451: Is loosely based on Astaire's real-life career with his sister and early dancing partner, Adele Astaire , who retired after marrying an English lord in 1932 and includes one of Astaire's best remembered dance sequences, the " You're All the World to Me " number where he appears to defy gravity by dancing first on the walls and then on the ceiling. The shot was achieved by building the set inside

5822-493: Is surely the master of the movie musical. The Pajama Game exists to prove it." Donen's next film was Kiss Them for Me (also 1957). He was personally asked by Cary Grant to direct and began developing it while still under contract at MGM. With a plot that strongly resembles On the Town , the film features Grant, Ray Walston and Larry Blyden as three navy officers on leave in San Francisco in 1944. Unlike On

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5964-502: The 29th Berlin International Film Festival in 1978. The first of the two films is Dynamite Hands , a black and white tribute to boxing – morality films. The second film is Baxter's Beauties of 1933 , a tribute to the extravagant musicals of Busby Berkeley . Like Donen's previous two films, it was unsuccessful financially, although the reviews were more positive. In The New York Times , Vincent Canby called

6106-539: The Swinging London of the 1960s divided critics, but Roger Ebert called its satire "barbed and contemporary ... dry and understated", and overall, a "magnificently photographed, intelligent, very funny film." On the other hand, Time magazine called it the feeblest of all known variations on the Faust theme. The film was a hit and was especially popular among American college students. Donen considered it

6248-399: The "next big thing" in live comedy. Charles H. Joffe , their producer, remembers that sometimes the line to their show went around the block. That partly explains why Milton Berle , a major television comedy star, tried three times without success to see their act. Critic Lawrence Christon recalls his first impression after seeing their act: "You just knew it was a defining moment. They caught

6390-512: The 1930s." Nostalgia for old Hollywood movies would be a theme of Donen's next film: Movie Movie (1978), produced by Lew Grade 's ITC Entertainment and scripted by Larry Gelbart and Sheldon Keller . The film is actually two shorter films presented as an old fashioned double feature , complete with a fake movie trailer and an introduction by comedian George Burns . It starred George C. Scott , Trish Van Devere , Red Buttons , Michael Kidd and Eli Wallach and premiered in competition at

6532-640: The 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan as Heaven Can Wait (1978). May reunited with Nichols for a stage production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in New Haven in 1980. She contributed (uncredited) to the screenplay for the 1982 megahit Tootsie , notably the scenes involving the character played by Bill Murray . Warren Beatty worked with May on the comedy Ishtar (1987), starring Beatty and Dustin Hoffman . Largely shot on location in Morocco ,

6674-559: The 1998 film Primary Colors . Compass Players Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.236 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 974917263 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:51:22 GMT Stanley Donen Stanley Donen ( / ˈ d ɒ n ə n / DON -ən ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019)

6816-822: The King of Rhodes whom Brynner plots to dethrone. The film was not a financial success, and Donen stated that it was made because he "desperately needed money for personal reasons." These were the only two films that Donen completed for his Columbia contract. The studio cancelled the deal after their poor box-office returns, and Donen was unable to produce the projects that he was pursuing at that time: playwright Robert Bolt 's A Man for All Seasons and A Patch of Blue , both of which became successful films for other directors. Grandon Productions produced Donen's next film: The Grass Is Greener , released through Universal Pictures in December 1960. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr play

6958-581: The Rain was nominated for two Academy Awards : Best Supporting Actress for Hagen and Best Original Score. Donald O'Connor won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Comden and Green once again won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical . Initially the film received only moderate reviews from critics such as Bosley Crowther and did not begin to receive widespread acclaim until

7100-500: The Town , Kiss Them for Me is a dark comedy that contrasts the officers' selfless heroism with their self-absorbed hedonism while on leave. The film received mostly poor reviews. After three films released in 1957, Donen became an independent producer and director. He had reluctantly agreed to direct Kiss Them for Me on condition that 20th Century Fox buy out his remaining contract with MGM. Now free from contractual obligations, he formed Grandon Productions with Grant and signed

7242-593: The U.S. Naval Air Service as a photographer from 1944 to 1946, Donen did uncredited work as a choreographer on musical films. Of this period Donen said, "I practiced my craft, working with music, track and photography. I often directed the sequences. I always tried to have an original idea about how to do musical sequences." Donen stated that he was excused from military service as 4-F due to his high blood pressure. When Kelly returned to civilian life, he and Donen directed and choreographed Kelly's dance scenes in Living in

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7384-522: The advantage of being away from the Hollywood rat race. Just going your own way in spite of whatever anyone else is doing or in spite of what you've done already was satisfying. I also had the advantage of the European influence: their way of looking at life, of making movies." While in the UK in the early 1960s, Donen was praised as an early influence on the then-emerging British New Wave film movement. In

7526-547: The anthology play Death Defying Acts ), After the Night and the Music , Power Plays , Taller Than A Dwarf , The Way of All Fish , and Adult Entertainment . In 1969, she directed the off-Broadway production of Adaptation/ Next . May made her film writing and directing debut in 1971 with A New Leaf , a black comedy based on a short story which she read in an Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine called The Green Heart which

7668-464: The author Jack Ritchie would later retitle A New Leaf. The unconventional romance with Walter Matthau as a Manhattan bachelor faced with bankruptcy, also starred May herself as the awkward botanist-heiress, Henrietta Lowell, who Matthau cynically woos and marries to salvage an extravagant lifestyle. Director May originally submitted a 180-minute work to Paramount , but the studio cut it back by nearly 80 minutes for release. The film has since become

7810-544: The beloved children's book The Little Prince first published in 1943. Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe wrote the music and screenplay and filming was done on location in Tunisia . The Little Prince (1974) stars Steven Warner in the title role, with Richard Kiley , Bob Fosse, Gene Wilder and Donna McKechnie . It was Donen's first musical film since Damn Yankees! Although it contained very little dancing, Fosse choreographed his own dance scenes as

7952-404: The box office. Her style of humor, in writing or acting, often has more to do with traditional Yiddish theater than traditional Hollywood cinema. Following the break-up, May wrote several plays. Her greatest success was the one-act Adaptation (1969). Other stage plays she has written include Not Enough Rope , Mr Gogol and Mr Preen , Hotline (which was performed off-Broadway in 1995 as part of

8094-408: The brothers kidnap six women from a neighboring town to marry them. The film was shot in the new CinemaScope format and is remembered for its dance sequences, particularly the " barn raising scene" in which architecture and construction become acrobatic ballet steps. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was one of the highest-grossing films of 1954 and appeared on many critics' 10 Best Films lists. It

8236-452: The cement to create puddles in the street. The film was a hit when it was released in April 1952, earning over $ 7.6 million. Kelly's An American in Paris had been a surprise Best Picture winner at the Oscars in March, and MGM decided to re-release it. Singin' in the Rain got pulled from many theaters to showcase the earlier film, preventing it from making further profits. Singin' in

8378-564: The comic meteors in the sky." They reunited for a Madison Square Garden benefit for George McGovern for President in June, 1972. The event, titled "Together Again for McGovern," also featured two musical groups that had recently broken up, Simon and Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary , as well as singer Dionne Warwick . May has also acted in comedy films, including Enter Laughing (1967), directed by Carl Reiner , and Luv (1967), costarring Peter Falk and Jack Lemmon . The latter film

8520-413: The creation and final effectiveness of dance." When "talkies" began to gain momentum in the film industry, the Hollywood studios recruited the best talent from Broadway to make musical films, such as Broadway Melody and Berkley's 42nd Street . These films established the backstage musical , a subgenre in which the plot revolves around a stage show and the people involved in putting it on. They set

8662-502: The dark romantic comedy The Heartbreak Kid (1972), the gangster film Mikey and Nicky (1976), and adventure comedy Ishtar (1987). May later earned acclaim writing the screenplays for Warren Beatty 's Heaven Can Wait (1978), and Mike Nichols' The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998). Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colors each earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay , while

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8804-465: The distinctive strengths of dancing and filmmaking that had never been done before" and adds that Donen and Kelly "seem to have elevated Hollywood dance from simplistic display of either dancing or photographic ability into a perception that incorporates both what the dancer can do and what the camera can see ... [They] developed a balance between camera and dancer that ... encouraged both photographer and choreographer to contribute significantly to

8946-408: The drama Dangerous Minds (1995). May reunited with her former comic partner, Mike Nichols , for the 1996 film The Birdcage , an American adaptation of the classic French farce La Cage aux Folles . Their film relocated the story from France to South Beach , Miami. It was a major box office hit. May received her second Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay when she again worked with Nichols on

9088-472: The earl and countess of a large estate in England who are forced to permit guided tours of their mansion in order to help their financial problems. Robert Mitchum plays an American oil tycoon who falls in love with Kerr and Jean Simmons plays an eccentric American heiress who is Grant's former girlfriend. The film was a financial disappointment in the United States, but was successful in England where

9230-490: The fall of 1940. After two auditions, he was cast as a chorus dancer in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey , directed by George Abbott . The titular Pal Joey was played by the young up-and-comer Gene Kelly , who became a Broadway star in the role. Abbott cast Donen in the chorus of his next Broadway show Best Foot Forward . He became the show's assistant stage manager, and Kelly asked him to be his assistant choreographer. Eventually Donen

9372-528: The fan his wish and transforms him into the muscular young hitter Joe Hardy (Hunter). Donen was able to shoot three real Senator– Yankee games on location with seven hidden cameras. The low-budget film was a moderate financial success and received good reviews. It was also Donen's last musical film until The Little Prince (1974). After Indiscreet Donen made England his home until the early 1970s. Musicals' waning popularity caused Donen to focus on comedy films. He observed that his "London base afforded me

9514-412: The film "Hollywood flimflamming at its elegant best." Donen made the science fiction film Saturn 3 (1980), starring Kirk Douglas , Farrah Fawcett and Harvey Keitel . Donen first read the script when its writer (and Movie Movie ' s set designer) John Barry showed it to him, prompting Donen to pass it along to Lew Grade. Donen was initially hired to produce, but Grade asked him to complete

9656-461: The film an abstract, smokey look that resembled the fashion photography of the period despite protests by Paramount, which had recently invested in the sharp VistaVision film format. Funny Face was screened in competition at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival and received good reviews from critics like Bosley Crowther. Sight & Sound , in contrast, accused it of being anti-intellectual. While in pre-production on Funny Face , Donen received

9798-419: The film and signed a one-year contract with MGM . Donen appeared as a chorus dancer and was made assistant choreographer by Charles Walters . At MGM Donen renewed his friendship with Kelly, who was now a supporting actor in musicals. When Kelly was loaned to Columbia Pictures for a film, he was offered the chance to choreograph his own dance numbers and asked Donen to assist. Kelly stated: "Stanley needed

9940-517: The film included cameos by many MGM contract actors, including the only screen pairing of Gene Kelly and his brother Fred. Although it received mediocre reviews, Romberg's status helped make the film a hit. Donen's third and final directorial collaboration with Kelly was It's Always Fair Weather (1955), another musical. It was produced by Freed, written by Comden and Green and the score was by André Previn . It starred Kelly, Dan Dailey , Cyd Charisse , Michael Kidd, and Dolores Gray . Envisioned as

10082-399: The film stars Carleton Carpenter as a GI who brings his tame lion with him when he joins the army. Donen's musical Give a Girl a Break (1953) stars Debbie Reynolds, Marge Champion and Helen Wood as three aspiring dancers competing for the lead in a new Broadway musical. Bob Fosse , Gower Champion and Kurt Kasznar also appear, with music by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin . The "Give

10224-399: The film when first-time director Barry was unable to direct. According to Donen "only a tiny bit of what Barry shot ended up in the finished film." It was a critical and financial disaster and initially Donen did not want to be credited as director. In the early 1980s, Donen was attached to direct an adaptation of Stephen King 's The Dead Zone and worked with writer Jeffrey Boam on

10366-452: The films of any other country" and was "probably the best American film of [1963]". It was remade as The Truth About Charlie (2002), directed by Jonathan Demme . Donen made another Hitchcock-inspired film with Arabesque (1966), starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren . The film was written by Julian Mitchell and Stanley Price , with an uncredited rewrite by Peter Stone. Peck plays an American professor at Oxford University who

10508-460: The first movie musicals and the technical difficulties with early sound films. This included characters loosely based on Freed and Berkeley and a scene that references silent film star John Gilbert . Donen and Kelly also made use of MGM's large collection of sets, props, costumes and outdated equipment from the 1920s. In the film, Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are two silent film stars in Hollywood whose careers are threatened by

10650-409: The first to make the city an important character; and the first to abandon the chorus." On the Town starred Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin as three sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York whose romantic pursuits lead them to Ann Miller , Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen . The film was a success both financially and critically and won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of

10792-566: The freedom they had during the workshop. May became prominent as a member of the Compass's acting group, a quality others in the group observed. Bobbi Gordon, an actor, remembers that she was often the center of attention: "The first time I met her was at Compass... Elaine was this grande dame of letters. With people sitting around her feet, staring up at her, open-mouthed in awe, waiting for 'The Word'." A similar impression struck Compass actor Bob Smith: May would hold court, discussing her days as

10934-424: The height of their fame, they decided to discontinue their act that year and took their careers in different directions: Nichols became a leading Broadway stage and film director; May became primarily a screenwriter and playwright, with some acting and directing. Among the reasons they decided to call it quits was that keeping their act fresh was becoming more difficult. Nichols explained: Several things happened. One

11076-436: The help of Hackman and Reynolds, who both compete for her affection. Donen stated that he "really cared about [the film] and gave three years of my life to it ... I think it's a very good movie." It went over budget and was unsuccessful at the box office. Most critics were unenthusiastic; however, Jay Cocks praised the film for having "the glistening surface and full-throttle frivolity that characterized Hollywood films in

11218-457: The idea would never work, so Donen and Kelly directed the scene themselves and Donen spent over a year editing it. The film made Kelly a movie star and is considered by many film critics to be an important and innovative musical. Donen signed a one-year contract with Columbia and choreographed several films there, but returned to MGM the following year when Kelly wanted assistance on his next film. In 1944, Donen and Kelly choreographed

11360-428: The invention of sound films. With help from his best friend Cosmo Brown (O'Connor) and love interest Kathy Selden (Reynolds), Lockwood saves his career by turning his latest film into a musical. Filming was harmonious, but Donen thought Kelly's "Broadway Melody" ballet sequence was too long. The "Singin' in the Rain" musical number took several months to choreograph, and Donen and Kelly found it necessary to dig holes in

11502-441: The late 1950s, Donen signed a non-exclusive, three-film deal with Columbia Pictures. His first film under this contract was Once More, with Feeling! (1960). Adapted by Harry Kurnitz from his own stage play, the film was shot in Paris and starred Yul Brynner as a tyrannical orchestra conductor whose mistress ( Kay Kendall ) grows tired of his tantrums and plots to marry him in order to quickly divorce him for his money. Kendall

11644-404: The late 1960s. One of its early supporters was critic Pauline Kael , who said that it "is perhaps the most enjoyable of all movie musicals – just about the best Hollywood musical of all time." It was re-released in 1975 to critical and popular success. Now established as a successful film director, Donen continued his solo career at MGM with Fearless Fagan (1952). Based on a true story,

11786-707: The latter won her the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay . May returned to acting in Woody Allen 's Amazon Prime series Crisis in Six Scenes (2016) and on Broadway in the revival of the Kenneth Lonergan play The Waverly Gallery (2018) the latter of which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play . The win made May the second-oldest performer behind Lois Smith to win

11928-548: The local Town Theater. His family often traveled to New York City during summer vacations where he saw Broadway musicals and took dance lessons. One of his early instructors in New York was Ned Wayburn , who taught eleven-year-old Astaire in 1910. After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Donen attended the University of South Carolina for one summer semester, studying psychology. Encouraged by his mother, he moved to New York City to pursue dancing on stage in

12070-628: The musical Anchors Aweigh , released in 1945 and starring Kelly and Frank Sinatra . The film is best known for its groundbreaking scene in which Kelly dances with Jerry the Mouse from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The animation was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and is credited to the MGM animation producer Fred Quimby , but the idea for the scene was Donen's. Donen and Kelly originally wanted to use either Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck for

12212-627: The musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét , the film's music is by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul , with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and choreography by Michael Kidd . Jane Powell plays Milly, an 1850s frontierswoman who marries Adam ( Howard Keel ) only hours after meeting him. When she returns with Adam to his log cabin in the Oregon backwoods, Milly discovers that her husband's six brothers are uncivilized and oafish. She makes it her mission to domesticate them and, upon Milly's sarcastic suggestion,

12354-447: The new intellectual culture which they saw growing around them. They felt that young Americans were taking themselves too seriously, which became the subject of much of their satire. Nichols structured the material for their skits, and May came up with most of their ideas. Improvisation became a fairly simple art for them, as they portrayed the urban couple's "Age of Anxiety" in their sketches, and did so on their feet. According to May, it

12496-484: The only other person on the campus of the University of Chicago who’s as hostile as you are: Elaine May." Six weeks later, they bumped into each other at a train station in Chicago and soon began spending time together over the following weeks as "dead-broke theatre junkies." In 1955, May joined a new, off-campus improvisational theater group in Chicago, The Compass Players , becoming one of its charter members. The group

12638-440: The original stage version had been a West End hit. One of Donen's most praised films was Charade (1963), starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau , James Coburn , George Kennedy and Ned Glass . Donen said that he had "always wanted to make a movie like one of my favorites, Hitchcock 's North by Northwest " and the film has been referred to as "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made." Charade

12780-521: The popular TV series Moonlighting and directed the music video for Lionel Richie 's song " Dancing on the Ceiling ", which employed the same rotating-room filming techniques that he used in "You're All the World to Me" from Royal Wedding . In 1989 Donen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina. In his commencement address, Donen stated that he thought he

12922-476: The production was beset by creative differences among the principals and had cost overruns. Long before the picture was ready for release, the troubled production had become the subject of numerous press stories, including a long cover article in New York magazine . Some of the opposition to the film came from David Puttnam , the studio head, making Ishtar a prime example of studio suicide. The advance publicity

13064-538: The project to ABC. In 2002 Donen directed Elaine May 's musical play Adult Entertainment starring Danny Aiello and Jeannie Berlin in Stamford, Connecticut. In 2004 he was awarded the Career Golden Lion at the 61st Venice International Film Festival . Donen is credited with having made the transition of Hollywood musical films from realistic backstage dramas to a more integrated art form in which

13206-474: The qualities of their act, which according to one writer made them a rarity, was that they used both "snob and mob appeal", which gave them a wide audience. Nachman explains that they presented a new kind of comedy team, unlike previous comedy duos which had an intelligent member alongside a much less intelligent one, as with Laurel and Hardy , Fibber McGee and Molly , Burns and Allen , Abbott and Costello , and Martin and Lewis . What differentiated their style

13348-496: The romance films Indiscreet (1958), Charade (1963), and Two for the Road (1967). He also directed the spy thriller Arabesque (1966), the British comedy Bedazzled (1967), the musicals Damn Yankees (1958) and The Little Prince (1974), the dramedy Lucky Lady (1975), and the sex comedy Blame It on Rio (1984). Stanley Donen was born on April 13, 1924, in Columbia, South Carolina to Mordecai Moses Donen,

13490-609: The same hands-off collaboration as their first film. Like The Pajama Game the film includes music by Adler and Ross and choreography by Fosse. It starred Tab Hunter , Gwen Verdon , and Ray Walston. Damn Yankees! is an adaptation of the Faust legend about a fan of the Washington Senators who would sell his soul to give the losing team a good hitter. Walston plays the Brooks Brothers -attired Devil who grants

13632-441: The satirical comedians of their era. When Nichols and May split up, they left no imitators, no descendants, no blueprints or footprints to follow. No one could touch them." Author Gerald Nachman Nichols said that for him personally the breakup was "cataclysmic", and he went into a state of depression: "I didn't know what I was or who I was." It was not until 1996, thirty-five years later, that they would work together again as

13774-423: The scene avoids being gratuitous or amateurish, while still "developing plot, describing the setting while conveying its galvanizing atmosphere and manic mood, introducing and delineating character." Casper also said: "Today the film is regarded as a turning point: the first bona fide musical that moved dance, as well as the musical genre, out of the theater and captured it with and for film rather than on film;

13916-432: The script. Donen eventually dropped out of the project and David Cronenberg directed the film a few years later. Boam stated that Donen was initially attracted to making the film because he wanted to "connect with contemporary youthful audiences" and that the script that they worked on together was "very close to the script that David wound up making." Donen's last theatrical film was Blame It on Rio (1984). The film

14058-526: The sequence and met with Walt Disney to discuss the project; Disney was working on a similar idea in The Three Caballeros (1944) and was unwilling to license one of his characters to MGM. The duo spent two months shooting Kelly dancing and Donen spent a year perfecting the scene frame by frame. According to Barbera "the net result at the preview of Anchors Away that I went to, blew the audience away". While Kelly completed his service in

14200-475: The show's participants, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore . The resulting film was Bedazzled (1967), an updated version of the Faust legend . It was written by Cook with music by Moore, and also starred Eleanor Bron and Raquel Welch . Moore plays a lonely young man whose unrequited love of his co-worker (Bron) drives him to attempt suicide. Just then the devil (Cook) appears and offers him seven wishes in exchange for his soul. The film's fun-loving association with

14342-460: The snake. Lerner stated that Donen "took it upon himself to change every tempo, delete musical phrases at will and distort the intention of every song until the entire score was unrecognizable". It was released in 1974 and was a financial disaster. Donen's next film was Lucky Lady (1975), starring Liza Minnelli , Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds . Minnelli plays a Prohibition era bootlegger who smuggles alcohol from Mexico to California with

14484-427: The songs were a natural continuation of the story. Before Donen and Kelly made their films, musicals – such as the extravagant and stylized work of Busby Berkeley – were often set in a Broadway stage environment where the musical numbers were part of a stage show. Donen and Kelly's films created a more cinematic form and included dances that could only be achieved in the film medium. Donen stated that what he

14626-445: The standard for the musical genre, placing their musical numbers either within the context of a stage performance or tacked on and gratuitous, without furthering the story or developing the characters. Donen stated that he disliked them and that his own films were "a reaction against those backstage musicals." Donen credited producer Freed as the driving force behind the transition, adding that Freed "had some sort of instinct to change

14768-597: The studio. That week produced the film's opening number " New York, New York ". Away from both studio interference and sound stage constrictions, Donen and cinematographer Harold Rosson shot a scene on the streets of New York City that pioneered many cinematic techniques that would be adopted by the French New Wave a decade later. These techniques included spatial jump cuts , 360-degree pans, hidden cameras, abrupt changes of screen direction and non-professional actors. Donen's biographer Joseph A. Casper stated that

14910-413: The success of On the Town , Donen signed a seven-year contract with MGM as a director. His next two films were for Freed, but were made without Kelly's participation. After being replaced as director on Pagan Love Song over personal differences with star Esther Williams , Donen was given the chance to direct his boyhood idol Fred Astaire. Royal Wedding (1951) starred Astaire and Jane Powell as

15052-565: The success of Take Me Out to the Ball Game , Freed gave Donen and Kelly the chance to direct On the Town , which was released in 1949. The film was an adaptation of the Betty Comden and Adolph Green Broadway musical about sailors on leave in New York City and was the first musical to feature location-filming. Donen and Kelly wanted to shoot the entire film in New York, but Freed would only allow them to spend one week away from

15194-471: The two exchange pillow talk over the phone. Donen used a split screen of the two stars with synchronized movements to make it appear as though they were in the same bed together. The film was a financial and critical success, and Donen was compared to such directors as Ernst Lubitsch and George Cukor . Donen briefly returned to the musical genre with Damn Yankees! (also 1958), based on George Abbott's Broadway hit . He again co-directed with Abbott in

15336-433: The urban tempo, like Woody Allen did." They performed nightly at mostly sold-out shows, in addition to making TV program and commercial appearances and radio broadcasts. Their relatively brief time together as comedy stars led New York talk show host Dick Cavett to call their act "one of the comic meteors in the sky". Woody Allen said, "the two of them came along and elevated comedy to a brand-new level". Technique Among

15478-494: The years in the south of France. It was moderately successful at the box-office while the critical reception was extremely mixed. Bosley Crowther called the film "just another version of commercial American trash." It is also the film that Donen said he was most frequently asked about by film students. While living in England, Donen became an admirer of the British stage revue Beyond the Fringe and wished to work with two of

15620-520: Was 11 years old, and then she and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where May later enrolled in Hollywood High School . She dropped out when she was fourteen years old. Two years later, at the age of sixteen, she married Marvin May, an engineer and toy inventor. They had one child, Jeannie Berlin (born 1949), who became an actress and screenwriter. The couple divorced in 1960, and she married lyricist Sheldon Harnick in 1962; they divorced

15762-550: Was a major turning point for Donen's career. The film was later criticized by novelist Francine Prose , who described it as anti-woman, calling it "one of the most repulsive movies about men and women that has ever been made" and a musical about rape. Deep in My Heart (1954), is Donen's biographical film concerning Sigmund Romberg , the Hungarian-born American operetta composer. Starring José Ferrer ,

15904-420: Was a modest success financially. In 1986, Donen produced the televised ceremony of the 58th Academy Awards , which included a musical performance of the song "Once a Star, Always a Star" with June Allyson , Leslie Caron , Marge Champion, Cyd Charisse, Kathryn Grayson , Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, and Esther Williams. Also in 1986 Donen directed a musical sequence for an episode of

16046-530: Was also the visual consultant and designed the opening title sequence for the film, it was written by Leonard Gershe and included additional music by Gershe and Edens. Donen and Edens began pre-production at MGM, but had difficulty juggling Astaire and Audrey Hepburn 's Paramount contracts, the Warner Brothers -owned rights to the Gershwin music that they wanted and their own MGM contracts. Eventually

16188-677: Was an American film director and choreographer. He received the Honorary Academy Award in 1998 , and the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2004. Four of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress . Donen began his career as a dancer in the chorus line on Broadway for director George Abbott . From 1943, he worked in Hollywood as

16330-490: Was at the height of his fame after the release of An American in Paris (1951) — to make Singin' in the Rain (1952), which would become one of the most highly praised films of all time. The film was produced by Freed, written by Comden and Green, photographed by Harold Rosson and starred Kelly, Debbie Reynolds , Donald O'Connor , Jean Hagen , Millard Mitchell and Cyd Charisse . Donen, along with Kelly, were brought in by Freed (who also hired Comden and Green to write

16472-414: Was based on the play by A. R. Gurney . Weber plays a successful U.S. Senator who finds out that his long lost love (Linney) has recently died. The two had only corresponded through mail over the years, and Weber remembers Linney through his collection of old love letters. Donen had wanted to make a theatrical film version of the play, but was unable to secure financing from any major studio and instead took

16614-494: Was completing the final four days of shooting on Kismet in July 1955 for director Vincente Minnelli . Donen's next film was at Paramount Pictures for producer Roger Edens . Funny Face (1957) contains four of the original George and Ira Gershwin songs from the otherwise unrelated 1927 Broadway musical of the same name that had starred Fred Astaire. Loosely based on the life of fashion photographer Richard Avedon , who

16756-405: Was complicated, both professionally and personally, but Donen's films as a solo director are generally better regarded by critics than Kelly's. French film critic Jean-Pierre Coursodon has said that Donen's contribution to the evolution of the Hollywood musical "outshines anybody else's, including Vincente Minnelli 's". David Quinlan called him "the King of the Hollywood musicals". Donen made

16898-457: Was conceived by Donen and written by novelist Frederic Raphael , who was nominated for an Academy Award. It has been called one of Donen's most personal films, "with glints of passion never disclosed before", and "a veritable textbook on film editing." The film's complicated and non-linear story is about the 12-year relationship between Hepburn and Finney over the course of four separate (but interwoven) road trips that they take together throughout

17040-456: Was covered in the PBS documentary Nichols and May: Take Two (1996). May infrequently acted in films, including Luv , Enter Laughing (both 1967), California Suite (1978), and Small Time Crooks (2000). She became the first female director with a Hollywood deal since Ida Lupino when she directed the 1971 black screwball comedy A New Leaf . Experimenting with genres, she directed

17182-628: Was different from others' in the group. Novelist Herbert Gold , who dated May, says that "she treated everything funny that men take seriously... She was never serious. Her life was a narrative." Another ex-boyfriend, James Sacks, says that "Elaine had a genuine beautiful madness." Nevertheless, states Gold, "she was very cute, a lot like Debra Winger , just a pretty Jewish girl." May was considered highly intelligent. "She's about fifty percent more brilliant than she needs to be," says actor Eugene Troobnick. Those outside their theater group sometimes noticed that same quality. British actor Richard Burton , who

17324-464: Was doing was a "direct continuation from the Astaire – Rogers musicals ... which in turn came from René Clair and from Lubitsch  ... What we did was not geared towards realism but towards the unreal." Donen is highly respected by film historians, but his career is often compared to Kelly's, and there is debate over who deserves more credit for their collaborations. Their relationship

17466-588: Was especially fond of Westerns, comedies and thrillers. The film that had the strongest impact on him was the 1933 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical Flying Down to Rio . Donen said that he "must have seen the picture thirty or forty times. I was transported into some sort of fantasy world where everything seemed to be happy, comfortable, easy and supported. A sense of well-being filled me." He shot and screened home movies with an 8 mm camera and projector that his father bought for him. Inspired by Astaire, Donen took dance lessons in Columbia and performed at

17608-537: Was fired from Best Foot Forward , but in 1942 was the stage manager and assistant choreographer for Abbott's next show Beat the Band . In 1946, Donen briefly returned to Broadway to help choreograph dance numbers for Call Me Mister . In 1943 Arthur Freed, the producer of musical films at Metro Goldwyn Mayer , bought the film rights to Best Foot Forward and made a film version starring Lucille Ball and William Gaxton . Donen moved to Hollywood to audition for

17750-416: Was founded by Sills and David Shepherd . Nichols later joined the group, wherein he resumed his friendship with May. At first, he was unable to improvise well on stage, but with inspiration from May, they began developing improvised comedy sketches together. Nichols remembered this period: From then on it became mostly pleasure because of Elaine's generosity. The fact of Elaine—her presence—kept me going. She

17892-500: Was largely negative and, despite some positive reviews from the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post , the film was a box office disaster. The film Ishtar has been positively re-evaluated in the 21st century by multiple publications including the Los Angeles Times , Slate , Indiewire , and The Dissolve . Richard Brody of The New Yorker called Ishtar a "wrongly maligned masterwork" and raved, "There's

18034-790: Was married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time, agreed with that impression after he first met May while he was starring in Camelot on Broadway. Nichols was personally asked to leave the Compass Players in 1957 because he and May became too good, which threw the company off balance, noted club manager Jay Landsman. Nichols was told he had too much talent. Nichols then left the group in 1957, with May quitting with him. They next formed their own stand-up comedy team, Nichols and May . After contacting some agents in New York, they were asked to audition for Jack Rollins , who would later become Woody Allen 's manager and executive producer. Rollins said he

18176-416: Was nominated for five Academy Awards , including Best Picture and Best Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture), which it won. Its success was a surprise to MGM, which invested more money in two other musicals: Rose Marie and Brigadoon , starring Kelly. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was more profitable than either of the other films, as well as On the Town and Singin' in the Rain , and its success

18318-473: Was not rote but came from re-creating her original impulse. Such improvisational techniques allowed her to make slight changes during a performance. Although May had a wider improvisational range than Nichols, he was generally the one to shape the pieces and steer them to their end. For their recordings, he also made the decision of what to delete. Team break-up Audiences were still discovering May and Nichols in 1961, four years after they arrived. However, at

18460-467: Was not well received by critics, although Lemmon said he enjoyed working alongside May: "She's the finest actress I've ever worked with," he said. "And I've never expressed an opinion about a leading lady before... I think Elaine is touched with genius. She approaches a scene like a director and a writer." Film scholar Gwendolyn Audrey Foster notes that May is drawn to material that borders on dry Yiddish humor. As such, it has not always been well received at

18602-421: Was produced by Stanley Donen Productions, released through Universal and adapted by Peter Stone from his own novel. Reggie Lampert (Hepburn) discovers that her husband has been murdered and (at least) three sinister men are all searching for the $ 250,000 in gold that he had hidden somewhere. Peter Joshua (Grant) befriends Reggie and helps her fight off the three thugs while the two begin to fall in love. The film

18744-500: Was really unnerving", he says. Nichols remembers that "everybody wanted Elaine, and the people who got her couldn't keep her." Theater critic John Lahr agrees, noting that "her juicy good looks were a particularly disconcerting contrast to her sharp tongue." "Elaine was too formidable, one of the most intelligent, beautiful, and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again." Richard Burton May's sense of humor, including what she found funny about everyday life,

18886-447: Was released in December 1963, only two weeks after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy , and the word "assassinate" had to be redubbed twice. It was Donen's most financially successful film and influenced a number of romantic comedy-thrillers released in the years following it. Film critic Judith Crist called it a "stylish and amusing melodrama", and Pauline Kael said it had "a freshness and spirit that makes [it] unlike

19028-445: Was simple: "It's nothing more than quickly creating a situation between two people and throwing up some kind of problem for one of them." Nichols noted that after coming up with a sketch idea, they would perform it soon after with little extra rehearsal or writing it down. One example he remembered was inspired simply from a phone call from his mother. I called Elaine and I said, "I've got a really good piece for us tonight." They created

19170-475: Was speaking to anybody." He called it a "one hundred percent nightmare" which was a "struggle from beginning to end". This time, MGM refused to allow the co-directors to shoot on location in New York. It's Always Fair Weather was moderately profitable, but not as successful as their previous two films. It was Donen's last film with Kelly or Freed. After its completion he fulfilled his MGM contract agreement by working with other studios. His last project for MGM

19312-620: Was stunned by how good their act was: Their work was so startling, so new, as fresh as could be. I was stunned by how really good they were, actually as impressed by their acting technique as by their comedy... They were totally adventurous and totally innocent, in a certain sense. That's why it was accepted. They would uncover little dark niches that you felt but had never expressed... I'd never seen this technique before. I thought, My God, these are two people writing hilarious comedy on their feet! By 1960, they made their Broadway debut with An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May , which later won

19454-495: Was terminally ill with leukemia during the shoot and died before its release. The film was not successful financially or critically. Donen quickly re-teamed with Brynner and Kurnitz for the film Surprise Package (also 1960). In this film Brynner plays an American gangster who is deported to the Greek island of Rhodes. Mitzi Gaynor plays the "surprise package" who is sent to the island to appease Brynner, and Noël Coward plays

19596-405: Was that I, more than Elaine, became more and more afraid of our improvisational material. She was always brave. We never wrote a skit, we just sort of outlined it: I'll try to make you, or we'll fight—whatever it was. We found ourselves doing the same material over and over, especially in our Broadway show. This took a great toll on Elaine. "Nichols and May are perhaps the most ardently missed of all

19738-551: Was the fact that their stage performance created "scenes," a method very unlike the styles of other acting teams. Nor did they rely on fixed gender or comic roles, but instead adapted their own character to fit a sketch idea they came up with. They chose real-life subjects, often from their own life, which were made into satirical and funny vignettes. This was accomplished by using subtle joke references which they correctly expected their audiences to recognize, whether through clichés or character types. They thereby indirectly poked fun at

19880-433: Was the only one who had faith in me. I loved it... We had a similar sense of humor and irony... When I was with her I became something more than I had been before. Actress Geraldine Page recalled they worked together with great efficiency, "like a juggernaut." Thanks in part to Nichols and May, the Compass Players became an enormously popular satirical comedy troupe. They helped the group devise new stage techniques to adapt

20022-448: Was the strongest woman I ever met," adds Compass actor Nancy Ponder. In giving all her attention to acting, however, she neglected her home life. Fellow actress Barbara Harris recalled that May lived in a cellar with only one piece of furniture, a ping-pong table. "She wore basic beatnik black and, like her film characters, was a brilliant disheveled klutz." Group actor Omar Shapli was "struck by her piercing, dark-eyed, sultry stare. It

20164-561: Was unique in being the first tap dancer to be a doctor and then tap danced for the graduates. At around the same time Donen taught a seminar on film musicals at the Sundance Institute at the request of Robert Redford . In 1993, Donen was preparing to produce and direct a movie musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson 's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde starring Michael Jackson . After allegations that Jackson had molested young boys at his Neverland Ranch became

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